Gun turrets which house large-calibre weapons, such as mortars and possibly guns, and where the ammunition magazine is located relatively close to the weapon, have previously been difficult to give a relatively small and compact design on account of the mechanism for retrieving and loading the ammunition requiring space so that it is not in the way of the rear end of the weapon when this recoils upon firing. In order to make possible handling of ammunition in this way, known mechanisms have had a complicated and relatively bulky design, which has made it difficult to give the gun turret a compact design at the same time.
SE 513 006 C2 describes a known arrangement of the type described in the introduction for loading a large-calibre weapon (gun) with artillery shells, where the ammunition pickup unit is arranged, after insertion of a shell from a magazine located to the rear, first to be pivoted around a rear axis by means of guide curves attached to the gun and a link system into such an angular position relative to the swing arm that the shell can assume an angle that approximately corresponds to the elevation of the gun, after which the shell is released from the ammunition pickup unit and is transferred to a separate shell cradle which is then moved sideways on guide rails attached to the gun into a position for insertion of the shell into the barrel of the gun by means of a ram on the cradle. This arrangement is relatively complicated and does not allow direct transferring of a shell from a magazine to a loading position by means of only one pivoting movement of the swing arm and the ammunition pickup unit mounted upon it.
SE 500 600 C2 shows a known mortar arrangement, where two or more barrels are arranged parallel to each other in a common cradle.